Appendix B1. QTEA District Interview Topic Guide
Passage ............................................................................................................................................ 1
Inception to Passage.................................................................................................................... 1
Elements Still Under Negotiation ............................................................................................... 1
Resources .................................................................................................................................... 2
Implementation ............................................................................................................................... 2
General ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Specific QTEA Elements ............................................................................................................ 2
Monetary incentives ................................................................................................................ 2
Peer Assistance and Review ................................................................................................... 3
Additional professional development ..................................................................................... 3
School-based performance incentives..................................................................................... 3
Master Teacher........................................................................................................................ 4
Ongoing Negotiations and Decision-Making ............................................................................. 4
District Economic Climate .......................................................................................................... 4
Passage
Inception to Passage
How did you first come to know about Prop A?
What was the original idea? Whose was it?
What were the initial positions?
How/why were you on board?
What provisions did you want added?
What was the negotiation process?
What compromises were made? (What did you win? What do you feel you gave up?)
How does this fit into your organizations larger goals?
 SFUSD’s strategic plan
 United Educators of San Francisco
 Business community
o What would you expect to see happen in the district (schools, teachers, etc.) as a
result of the passage of Prop A?
o What role did you play in the passage of Prop A?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Elements Still Under Negotiation
o Role of the oversight committee
o Master teachers – how will they be selected? What will they do?
o Hard-to-staff schools bonus ($2k/year) – how will schools be designated? Will the
designation change over time (i.e., can schools move in/out of designation)?
o Hard to fill subject areas – have these 3 subjects been selected?
o School achievement – what will the growth metric be? For which students and
schools?
o New evaluation program as part of PAR – what will this look like?
 What do you hope will happen?
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Appendix B1. QTEA District Interview Topic Guide


What do you think could happen? (Probe on political
environment/relationships/positions)
What are your bottom lines (where do you draw the line)?
Resources
 What resources did you draw on for making this decision? Are there articles or people
that you consulted as part of this process? Other schools/districts?
 Do you have meeting notes? Write-ups, or correspondence?
 Are there upcoming meetings that we could attend?
Implementation
General

Meetings thus far
o Formal negotiations meetings
 Meeting for June 1, 2009 MOU
 What were your priorities in this meeting?
 What did you decide?
 How do you feel about the decisions made?
 Other meetings
 What have been your priorities?
 What have you decided?
o Implementation meetings
 District/Union
 District internal
Specific QTEA Elements
Monetary incentives
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
Hard to staff schools and subjects
o How were they decided, and are you happy with the selections?
How are teachers talking about the incentives?
Do you think the incentives will have an impact?
o On recruitment? Retention? Morale?
Why or why not?
Communication – what have you done?
Logistics
o How is the money being distributed?
o Have there been any problems with this process?
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Appendix B1. QTEA District Interview Topic Guide
Peer Assistance and Review

Changes to PAR
o In the passage of QTEA, there was still uncertainty around PAR. How did this
uncertainty play out?
o What are the final agreements on exit requirements?
o How was this decided, and are you happy with the decision?

Questions about PAR program
o Case load for this year
 Are there more than last year? When were they referred? How were they
referred?
o Needs improvement
 Have there been teachers who have been referred yet with two consecutive NI
ratings?
 Do you think the principals knew that they were referring the teachers by
giving NI ratings?
o Voluntary participants
 Are there any?
 Who are they?
 What kinds of support are they receiving?
o Essential standards
 Are these being used for exit from the program? Are there any teachers who
did not complete PAR successfully this year who would have last year?
o No re-entry?
 Is this provision being used? Are there any teachers who had already
participated in PAR before who were referred again this year?
Additional professional development

Professional Development (Teachers, Paras, CDP)
o How was it decided how hours would be used?
o How are schools/teachers using the additional PD money?
School-based performance incentives

What are the elements of this program?
o How decided?
o How is awareness being spread?
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Appendix B1. QTEA District Interview Topic Guide
Master Teacher


Program design
o How was the program rolled out?
o Why was the program designed as it was?
Master teachers
o Who are the master teachers?
 How were they selected?
 How were they trained?
 Where are they working?
 What are the master teachers doing?
 Who are they working with?
 How is this decided?
 How is this monitored?
 How do you know it is effective?
Ongoing Negotiations and Decision-Making
o Oversight committee
o QTEA in relation to other district policy and budgeting negotiations
District Economic Climate
o General economic climate in SFUSD
 District-level budget cuts
 Teacher workforce issues
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